In many ways the airfield at North Weald is a millstone for the owners Epping Forest District Council

16 Pages·2015·2.59 MB·English

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EDITION: SUMMER 2015
In many ways the airfield at North Weald is a millstone for the owners Epping Forest District
Council [EFDC]. They have owned it for decades, but despite the positive early promotional
words it has tended to cost a great deal of time and effort for a not always great return. Naturally
as a local authority they have been far better landlords and rubbish collectors than having any
potential aeronautical inclinations. Unfortunately, as we have found in recent weeks with less
than slick rubbish collections, even their areas of expected expertise can be put under strain.

So running the airfield has been challenging and costly when they have been obliged to defend it
at great cost from being over-run by housing whilst facing less than expected rental gains from
the airfield and its users. Like many others in the area the once great outdoor market is not what
it used to be and other areas have been equally ‘difficult.’

Those 3,000 houses that were destined for the airfield
were eventually thwarted, or at least delayed, at great
cost and are now to be built in adjoining fields to the west
of the airfield as Harlow expands. There is little doubt
that the threat to the airfield will re-emerge when inevita-
bly another 3,000 dwellings are needed.

With this as a background this summer the EFDC em-
ployed Savills Co, a global real estate services provider
to put out a call for what they term an Airfield Partnership
Opportunity.

EFDC as the landowner is seeking an experienced part-
ner to implement a growth strategy for the airfield to in-
crease profitability through managed investment, intensi-
fication and redevelopment and has advertised in Flight
for this person or body.

With traditional areas of airfield income including the
market weakening there have already been successful
new developments started including using the Control
Tower for events and conferences [such as the Essex &
Herts Air Ambulance using it regularly for meetings] but
EFDC hope that the new partners will have bigger better
ideas to bring to the table. BE
(Continued on page 2)
Four years after EFDC bought the airfield the highly
successful Fighter Meets started. This image is from
the May1988 Fighter Meet where The Falcons were
dropped from RAF C130 Hercules
[BE]
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TRAINING
One of the latest high profile
improvements has been in
the area of flying training.

For several years, Saxon Mi-
crolights has been the only
organisation on the Airfield
permitted to conduct ab initio
flight training on a small
scale. With the change in the
Private Pilot’s Licence (PPL)
training at unlicensed air-
fields, a case was put forward
to allow ab initio training in
larger General Aviation air-
craft from North Weald as
part of the move to generate
more income from aviation
activities. The training has
been approved subject to
some limitations relating to
noise abatement, the Satur-
day Market and other activi-
ties such as fast jet opera-
tions and formation flying.

PPL training has been under-
taken by North Weald Flying
Group (NWFG), a CAA Ap- Saxon Microlights were exhibiting
proved Training Organisation, at the recent Air-Britain Fly-In [BE]
since April 1. The majority of
the training will be carried out
using NWFG’s two-seat Cessna 152, G-LOMN (call-sign Weald 01), and G-NWFA (call-sign
Weald 02).
[EFDC]

September this year is the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain and EFDC and some of the
aviation industry tenants are planning big things. Clearly this will be a major National commemo-
ration and there will be a very crowded calendar of events in that month across the country. The
Community Day normally held in September is being held earlier on July 12. This event is now
almost upon us and the die is cast for its content of stalls, bands and flying turns. This will be no
major air show in the mould of the past, long lamented, Fighter Meet events but it will be a show
of its time and we can expect sight of sleek Spitfire’s and Hurricane’s and much more. The muse-
um will be present with its sales table and with displays marking the 75th Anniversary.

In September the museum will have its open day and there will be commemorative events locally
related to September 15, the official Battle of Britain Day and September 20 when
there will be the Annual Battle of Britain Church Service.

Already plans are turning towards next year and of course we will need to build up
to the 100th birthday of the airfield. This will move the aviation focus back another
two decades to the Great War, of bi-planes and giant airships.
There is no actual date set for the main event commemorating
the airfield event just yet. North Weald started setting up the infra-
structure for what was in those days a very basic flying field over
August and September 1916 with actual air operations in defence
of London being recorded from late September.
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WHATS ON

12 July [Sunday] Airfield Battle of Britain 75th Anniversary Open Day [Community Day].

2 August 2015 Nostalgair. A flying event centred on The Squadron

6 September [Sunday] North Weald Airfield Museum Open Day at Ad Astra House, Hurricane
Way, CM16 6AA on the edge of North Weald village and by the old entrance to the former RAF
airfield. The museum will be open as usual and in addition we will have outside displays that will
include the museum shop, the Royal Air Forces Association, Police Aviation News and some deli-
cious food outlets. As usual entry to the museum and extra displays is free on the day.

15 September The official date of Battle of Britain Day

20 September Annual Battle of Britain Church Service at North Weald

8 November Remembrance Sunday services. Towards the end of the museums opening period it
will be opening early on the Sunday to work alongside the Parish Council to host the annual ser-
vice in memory of the fallen of what is now 99 years.

If you check out our website you will see that we have added a number of the other on airfield
events including such as motor cycle events etc. not directly related to aviation. You can also
check these out on the airfield website and in the latest edition of their Spirit of North Weald
newsletter – No.16. http://www.eppingforestdc.gov.uk/index.php/out-and-about/north-weald-
airfield/docs-spirit-of-nw

MUSEUM NEWS
To further the activities of the sales team at out-
MUSEUM OPENING TIMES
side events, and to protect them from all that the
Except on Special Event Days visitors will be
sun and rain may wish to throw at them, the mu-
charged standard rates for entry:
seum has a new gazebo. Look out for it when you
visit the Community Day and of course the Adults £2
NWAM Open Day in September. Concessions £1.50
Children [5-15] 50p
Although the museum is generally only open at
weekends there have been instances where is Group rates vary but generally there is a mini-
has opened its doors midweek to groups large
mum charge of £50 per group.
and small subject to an entry charge covering
costs. In the last few months there have been
NORTH WEALD AIRFIELD MUSEUM
visits by such diverse groups as the family of
Ad Astra House
war heroes and youngsters with the youth
Hurricane Way
groups including the Scouting Cubs. In the time
North Weald
there have been enquiries from such as schools
Epping
and research groups, historians and even ghost
Essex CM16 6AA
hunters. Where possible they are fitted in but as
Telephone: [phone]
can be expected the weekends fit better. [24/7 answering]
[email protected]

www.nwamuseum.co.uk
The museum first moved in to Ad Astra House
Registered charity: 1081157
its current home in 1991 and shared the newly
refurbished with the West Essex Wing of the
RAF Air Training Corps. They were upstairs and the museum was downstairs. This was the hey-
day for the museum as the RAF pretty much looked after the day-to-day running of the building.

Eventually though the RAF restructured its ATC set-up and West Essex Wing moved out leaving
the museum to fend for itself with the able assistance of EFDC and the North Weald Parish Coun-
cil. Since that time there have been major changes in how the museum was run, a couple of new
constitutions and a need to look after the circa 1908 building alone.
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Those RAF refurbishments were undertaken MEMBERSHIP DETAILS
over 20 years ago and now the museum is taking
HOW TO JOIN
on a new round of refurbishments intended to
keep the building in good condition. Recently it
We accept all currencies in welcom-
has been a need to change the old strip lighting
ing you to museum membership—
units for something more modern but the latest
becoming a Friend of North Weald
area of change is stripping out the now dated
Airfield Museum as long as it means
storage heating system and replace it with some-
the same as £12.50p!
thing more manageable and economic to run.

Storage heaters are designed to switch on at
You can join through the museum
night and to release their heat during the day so
website www.nwamuseum.co.uk
are not very manageably for our erratic heating
needs.
Just disposing of the heavy heat retention bricks
in the storage heaters has been a major problem.

As a result of the works though it has been far easier to warm up the building for use by groups
wanting to hire the 30 seat conference room.

SOCIAL MEDIA
Reaching out: The museum has two Twitter account’s which run in parallel. One is
the original linked to the web site set up by Simon Chamberlain, our late Secretary,
and largely maintained by his widow. The other is the newer account set up last
summer. The latter account achieved 1,000 followers in March this year and has
now moved beyond 1,140 where the original account has nearly 900 followers.
The museum has a Facebook account that has over 1,100 likes on it so we are getting out to peo-
ple who often cannot get to North Weald and through the museum door so easily.

RECENT VISITS TO THE MUSEUM
On April 15 the museum was honoured to receive a visit from Sarah, Fiona
and Domenic, the children, Alex and Isobel, the grandchildren and Rodolpho
the son-in-law of Air Vice Marshall David Scott-Malden, who was the Wing
Commander of 131 and 132 Squadrons (the Norwegian Wing) at North
Weald during 1942.
After service as a fighter pilot with No 611 (West Lancashire) Squadron, No
603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron and command of No 54 Squadron he
moved to the headquarters No 14 Group in Scotland, and given the task of
helping to bring to operational readiness the first Free Norwegian fighter
squadrons, with pilots who had escaped from Norway. When they were ready
Scott-Malden was appointed, in March 1942, to command the Norwegian
Fighter Wing of three squadrons at North Weald. In the summer, the wing
built a magnificent reputation and covered itself in glory during the disastrous David Scott-Maldon
Dieppe raid of August 20. Operating from the Kent coastal airfield at
Manston, Scott-Malden led Nos 242, 331 and 332 squadrons in three separate sorties on the day,
seeking, against great odds, to protect the mostly Canadian troops as they attempted to land and
then to withdraw. Scott-Malden was awarded a DSO and was also decorated by King Haakon of
Norway with the Norwegian War Cross, lunching with the King afterwards at Claridge's.
He took a full commission in the peacetime RAF and married Anne Elizabeth Watson in 1955;
they had two sons and two daughters. He was invalided out of the service in 1966 and finally re-
tired to Norfolk in 1978. He died aged 80 years.
Sarah had found out about the museum from our website and together with her husband had
flown over from California, where they now live, to link up with the rest of the family and visit North
Weald.
The Chairman and Steve Wagstaffe acted as hosts, showing them around the museum and con-
centrating, of course, on our many Norwegian artefacts, including their father’s uniform which has
Continues on page 6
Copyright Notice: The content of this publication includes items that are the copyright of others. The source of words
and images will usually be indicated together with the source of additional information that seeks to enhance the origi-
nal information.
The Hurricane includes artwork produced for it by Ian J Commin of Insight Design of North Burnham, Slough SL1 6DS.
In some cases it may not be possible to indicate the source of this material directly associated with the images used.
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NORTH WEALD MUSEUM
ON THE BBC
From time to time the museum is able to
assist the media with their research as
often as not receiving vague mentions or
a few tiny words in the end credits.

We were particularly pleased to be specif-
ically mentioned in a recent BBC pro-
gramme that told the tale of one of the
museum’s treasures—a flying helmet in
the Battle of Britain Room.

Nearly five years ago the museum welcomed the donation
of the flying helmet and some associated papers by Mau-
rice H Mousdon a former Battle of Britain pilot with 56
Squadron at North Weald now living abroad .

As a Pilot Officer he had been shot down in his burning
Hurricane near Good Easter, Chelmsford and lost the hel-
met. Badly burned he received treatment from McIndo and his medical team. The surprise came
in September 1940 when a member of the public found the helmet n a field and returned it to
North Weald through Essex Police.
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pride of place in the Allies Room. They were es-
pecially touched to see that this room is now
known as the David Scott-Malden Room.
Although they have never been able to visit the
RNAF base at Bodo, they are old friends with
Gen. Mohr, who has recounted many anecdotes
about life at North Weald under the “Wingco”,
some of which were passed on to us!
To make an exciting day even more special while
the family were in the museum three veteran Nor-
wegians, Erik Gran, Svein Lind and Jens
Lyngees, who had flown over from Asker in Nor-
way specially to visit Ad Astra House arrived at
the front door completely unannounced. It turned out that the brother of Svein had served with
the Norwegian Wing under DS-M’s command, so yet more stories came out!
After a fascinating hour and a half, but not before Sarah, Fiona and Domenic had filled in mu-
seum membership application forms, we handed them over to Arthur Moreton and Trevor Jago
at the airfield main gate for a visit to the control tower and an airfield tour.

Sarah has since written a very generous thank-you letter and it is reproduced below:-

Citation for the award of the Distin- Dear Peter and Stephen
guished Service Order We are back in California now, a little jet lagged but full of
“Acting Wing Commander Francis
great memories of our UK trip.
David Stephen SCOTT-MALDEN,
One of the highlights was definitely our visit to North Weald
D.F.C. (74690), Royal Air Force Vol-
unteer Reserve. and I would like to thank you both on behalf of all my family for
During the past 6 months, this officer showing us around and making the afternoon so special. Your
has led his wing on a large number of dedication and passion for all things North Weald have made
sorties. In this period, the wing has
the museum a deeply personal and interesting place.
destroyed 49 enemy aircraft and prob-
It meant so much to us to stand in my father’s old office, see
ably destroyed and damaged many
others. During the combined opera- the memories of the people he served with and visit the air-
tions at Dieppe on the 19th August, field. You have created a wonderful place to remember and
1942, the wing completed a large
honour the men who served at North Weald.
number of sorties; 21 enemy aircraft
Please also thank Arthur very much for welcoming us and giv-
were destroyed, and many others
damaged. Wing Commander Scott- ing us such an interesting visit to the airfield too. We really
Malden led the wing on 3 of these appreciated his knowledge and dedication to the exhibits at
sorties. The splendid success the airfield.
achieved on this and other occasions
We look forward enormously to coming to North Weald again
is largely attributable to the magnifi-
when we are in the UK and I know there are some other mem-
cent leadership displayed by Wing
Commander Scott-Maiden. He is a bers of the family who are planning a visit soon. I really appre-
brilliant pilot and a fine tactician, ciate the time you spent with us and you kindness.
whose thorough knowledge and per-

sonal example have proved worthy of
With best wishes
the highest praise.”
(London Gazette – 11 September 1942)
Sarah Scott-Malden
David Scott-Maldon
Storyline by Stephen Wagstaffe
26th April 2015

Additional information: Sarah Scott-Malden studied French
and Italian at Bristol University before moving to Italy for three
years where she had her first teaching jobs in Pisa and Flor-
ence.
She took the RSA Diploma in TEFL and then took up a teach-
ing post with the Bell School of Languages, at first in Norwich
and then in Saffron Walden. She taught at the Saffron Walden
School for eleven years before moving with her family to Cali-
fornia. While working as a teacher trainer. Her sister, Fiona
Andrews, is a GP in Suffolk.
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TALES OF NORTH WEALD AND VAMPIRE’S
One of the visitors to North Weald in early June was former LAC
Frederick John Rootkin 4046551. Always known as John [his mother
disagreed with her husband’s choice of name and the world followed
suit] John was carpenter/joiner by trade. The family lived in Great
Dunmow, Essex.

On being called up for National Service early in 1951 he was moved from his trade into the very
different craft of Electrical Mechanical Engineer. He recalls that when offered his RAF job by the
instructors at Melksham he had little idea what they were talking about but accidentally chose to
be “Elec Mech Air” which turned out to mean that he was to be out there on the airfield servicing
the aircraft – if he had left off that last word ‘Air’ he would likely have spent his time in an office.
Such are the chances of life.

He spent 16 weeks at 10 School of Recruit Training based alongside the School of Technical
Training [12 SOTT] Melksham and hankered after a posting close to home – held by everyone a
most unlikely eventuality. He was therefore pleasantly surprised then when he was notified he was
indeed to be posted to North Weald.

With a number of other National Service recruits he turned up at North Weald on June 4, 1951 to
find that a plane had crashed close to the forecourt of the railway station at North Weald. It was to
be the first of seven pilot deaths that took place during his relatively short time at North Weald.

The pilot of a 72 Squadron Vampire jet, Sergeant 650278 Charles Harry Hunter, aged 29 and sin-
gle and from Yorkshire was seven minutes into a solo flight intended to last between 45 minutes
and one hour when the aircraft crashed, nose first, a few yards off Kiln Lane near the railway em-
bankment.

He was seen to start to pull out of a loop but the aircraft flipped over onto its back and went into a
spin taking the Yorkshireman to his death.

After that far from promising arrival incident John found he was to be posted to B Flight of 72
Squadron undertaking the maintenance of similar single seat de Havilland Vampire fighters.

They had no real facilities, the rooms in the arms of the wartime revetments and a canvas hangar
being the only places they could take cover in case of bad weather.

In this period North Weald was home to the full
time RAF - 72 Squadron and a Station Flight -
and the part-timer Auxiliary Air Force including
601 and 604 Squadron’s. The RAF operated in
the weekdays and part-time air force mainly
turned out for the weekends. John and his fellow
‘Erks’ looked after all of them and often found
themselves working weekends for different mas-
ters. All units operated the Vampire when John
arrived but by the summer of 1952 they were
changing to the twin-engine Gloster Meteor. Oth- A Vampire of A Flight
er types stationed included the Tiger Moth and
the Anson.

Another Vampire accident, occurring on July 9 involved Flying Officer 201760 G J Briggs who had
a total flight experience of 125 hrs, of which 23 hours had been on the Vampire.

Setting off along the North Weald runway for a low flying detail at 0952hrs the pilot believed that
the aircraft, VV187, was not going to fly, he quickly throttled back and braked the aircraft but it was
going too fast and ended up going through the airfield boundary fence. The pilot climbed out and
walked away from the Vampire, which had crashed across the main Epping Road with part of the
fuselage across road, in a style that had been performed many times before!
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The museum has records of all sorts of accidents from the period but many of them were simp-
ly never recorded. On another instance of a Vampire “going agricultural” it simply sank in an
area of boggy ground with no significant damage. The Vampire was fairly light – like the far
larger de Havilland Mosquito it was basically made of bonded balsa wood – and in this instance
the remedy for retrieving the machine was to march a whole team of ‘Erks’ out to it and they got
under the wing and lifted it on their shoulders and shuffled back onto firm ground where a trac-
tor could tow it back to dispersal for a clean-up. Meanwhile the said recovery squad also went
back to get the mud and grass off their uniforms and boots!

Of all the accidents he was to be aware of during his time at North Weald only one pilot’s name
remained in his memory for over 60 years and that was an officer Ray Wyborn.

Football was a major pastime for most service personnel at the time and it was one area in
which differences in rank were suspended. As a result LAC Rootkin and Flight Lt. Raymond
George Sylvanus Wyborn were equals only on the football pitch and the Wing Commander liv-
ing in what we now know as the museum building was a great football fan.

One year after arriving at North Weald, on July 12. 1952, that football friendship was suddenly
cut short by another Vampire accident in which a formation of four 72 Squadron Vampire FB5
aircraft took off from North Weald on a practice training mission for the forthcoming Battle of
Britain display. The squadron were flying in a loose diamond formation with Squadron leader
Clive Mason as leader, Sgt Gordon Buckle to his left and slightly astern, Sgt Cecil Victor Ran-
dall (24) to the right and astern and Ray Wyborn (25) to the rear.

The formation performed loops and rolls for some 20 minutes a distance away from North
Weald, before returning to repeat what they had practiced over the airfield. After completing a
roll and loop in very close formation an attempted roll to the left at 2,000 feet resulted in a colli-
sion between the aircraft of Randall and Wyborn [WA366 and VV683] to the left rear of the for-
mation. Neither survived.

In an earlier story told to the museum a visitor told us he had been at the scene as a boy and
cycling near Chigwell Row. He saw two aircraft collide and fall to the ground and went to inves-
tigate. He recalled seeing the covered bodies being carried to an ambulance and, because the
field was muddy and the ambulances were 'stuck' and the gathered crowd helped out by push-
ing the ambulances across the field. John was able to read up on that dimly recalled event and
refresh him memory while visiting the museum – but the story is also on-line at the museum
website.

A few months after the death of Ray Wyborn it was time for John to move on. In the meantime
the weeks before he left were spent in accepting the 72 Squadron Gloster Meteor Mk 8 aircraft
and being in the thick of the procedure undertaking the backlog of modifications the new aircraft
needed to get them up to a common standard even before they could be taken into service and
then signing off the old Vampire’s which left North Weald for pastures new.

The final 9 months of his National Service was spent at Pembrey in South Wales. From Sep-
tember 1952 RAF Pembrey became home to 233 OCU [Operational Conversion Unit] which
flew Vampire’s and Hawker Hunter’s. It was a great surprise to find on arrival that he was ac-
cepting Vampire aircraft for use with the OCU at Pembrey that included the exact same 72
Squadron aircraft he had sent personally signed off at North Weald only weeks earlier!

After 3 years of National Service John reverted to civilian life and being a Carpenter/Joiner back
in Great Dunmow where he lives today.
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Another visitor in June was long standing member Peter Beck who, like me
partly joined North Weald Airfield Museum because of strong RAF family
member connections. In his case the tie with the village is far stronger in
that as a 4-5 years old he lived in the married quarters close to the museum
and has some great pictures of the street before it was crowded by cars.

His father, Flight Sergeant W B Beck [pictured below right], flew with 111
Squadron and some time ago he donated a cow bell that had been present-
ed to the members of 111 when they flew an air display in Zurich during
May 1956. Both the bell and a photograph of the team in Zurich are on dis-
play in the museum Roger Topp Room.
Regular attendees at North Weald air shows will have seen the Lockheed Martin F-16 mounts of
the Royal Norwegian Air Force [RNoAF] performing a number of times but the situation is about
to change quite soon. The average age of the current front-line Norwegian fighter aircraft is
more than 30 years and plans are in hand to replace them with the product of an international
fighter project that will see service across a major part of the Western world – the F-35. The ad-
vanced technology and interoperability of the new technology F-35 will support and augment
Norwegian national security. In 2012, it was announced that the RNoAF would be purchasing 52
CTOL (Conventional Take-Off and Landing) variants of the F-35 from Lockheed Martin in the
USA. The current front line fighter [the F-16], the C-130J transport and the P-3 sub-hunter all
originated from Lockheed Martin.
The 1st Norwegian F-35 in production
©LMCO
The F-35 programme will provide expertise and knowledge to Norway to help grow and develop
their industrial capabilities. This partnership will also foster an environment of technology and
knowledge sharing between countries. As long as the RNoAF regards North Weald as its home,
we can look forward to being thrilled by the power of their new mounts. Meanwhile the type re-
mains in production in the USA.
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LETTERS

Dear Bryn,
On page 7 of the newsletter someone is inquiring
about a silver Spitfire possibly of 601 in the hangars
at North Weald. The last Spitfires with 601 were Mk
XVIs and they were replaced by the Vampires at the
very end of 1949. It’s my understanding that the sil-
ver Spitfires were not painted silver, but rather not
painted at all. As the gentleman who wrote the article
was there in the 50's it’s probably not a 601 Spitfire
and the one in the photo for the article has a 5 blad-
ed propeller so it’s later than an Mk XVI. I have at-
tached a photo that you may find interesting from
North Weald from December 1949 showing the Squadrons Spitfires lined up opposite the then
brand new Vampires and it nicely shows the hangars in the background. One 601 MXVI Spitfire
from North Weald still exists. RW393. Doing an internet search on the serial number it appears
to be at RAF Cosford now as a static display (it probably only survived as it was a gate guardi-
an for a while).

Regards
James Ivers
601 OCA.

Hello Bryn,
I really enjoyed the latest issue of THE HURRICANE
newsletter from the North Weald Airfield Museum.
Hope to see you at N/W this summer.
Photos are from our base Rygge AB south of Oslo.

Best regards
Kenneth Aarkvisla
Director/chief pilot

Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron
www.historicalsquadron.no

Posted by Margaret Pryke on Facebook
I was born ay Woodford in 1940. I can remember bits of the war. One thing is our old dog Judy.
She used start barking all of a sudden for what seemed to be nothing, then one of my parents
would shout and say "down the shelter Quick" and a few seconds later the German planes
would be overhead, followed by the boys from North Weald, the dog always heard the planes
before the Siren went off.